Career Span Research Articles

The Positive Empirical Relationship of Professionalism to Effectiveness in the Practice of Law

This paper examines the relationship between professionalism and effectiveness through a review of empirical literature from the social sciences and the professions. In both peer-reviewed and industry studies, increased capacities for professionalism (e.g. personal conscience defined as perceptual clarity and empathy, moral judgment, moral identity, and moral implementation skills) were related to a wide range of effectiveness outcomes as assessed by clients and experienced professionals. These effectiveness outcomes include (1) increased satisfaction with the professional’s services, (2) decreased likelihood the professional experiences malpractice claims or complaints, and (3) increased likelihood the professional will detect or report wrongdoing. Evidence indicates that professionalism is not a fixed trait, but rather it can be enhanced and developed across the career span.

The US Department of Defense Millennium Cohort Study: Career Span and Beyond Longitudinal Follow-Up

To describe current and future career-span health research in the US Department of Defense Millennium Cohort Study. Collaborating with all military service branches and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Millennium Cohort Study launched in 2001, before September 11 and the start of deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, to conduct coordinated strategic research to determine any effects of military occupational and deployment-related exposures, on long-term health. More than 150,000 consenting members represent demographic, occupational, military, and health characteristics of the US military. More than 70% of the first two panels have submitted follow-up questionnaires and >50% have deployed since 2001. Prospective cohort data have identified subgroups of military populations at higher risk or more resilient to decrements in mental and physical health. Continued career span and beyond follow-up will answer long-term health questions related to military service.

Secondary teachers' conceptual metaphors of teaching and learning: Changes over the career span

Much has been written about the persistence of teacher beliefs upon entering and exiting preservice teacher education programs. Little research has explored teacher beliefs over the career span. Through an online survey instrument teachers ( n = 110) choose which teaching metaphors most closely match their own under three conditions: upon first entering the profession, at present, and ideally. Analysis indicates that 63% of teachers changed their conception of teaching over time. While very experienced teachers began teaching with teacher-centered conceptual metaphors, over the course of their careers some move toward student-centered metaphors. Newer teachers have a tendency to begin with and aspire to student-centered conceptual metaphors. Teachers whose metaphors for current and desired practice differed identified obstacles to, and suggestions for, a better fit.

Sudden infant death syndrome/unexplained infant deaths in Sri Lanka

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), also known as 'unexplained deaths under one year', is rarely reported in Sri Lanka as a cause of post-neonatal mortality. The aim of this study was to assess the opinion of paediatricians and pathologists regarding the reasons for this rarity. Members of the Colleges of Paediatricians, Pathologists and Forensic Pathologists who met the inclusion criteria were selected as the study population. A brief self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Results were analysed using standard statistical methods. The sample consisted of 50 paediatricians, 15 histopathologists and seven forensic pathologists with a mean career span of 26.3 years. SIDS was reportedly diagnosed by only nine (12.5%) of the respondents while the other 63 (87.5%) have never encountered SIDS during their careers. Of the nine doctors, three (33.3%) based their diagnosis on autopsy findings but histological and toxicological studies had not been performed. The other six doctors (66.6%) relied on clinical history alone. Twenty-five doctors (34.7%) believed that keeping babies under close adult supervision was the reason SIDS is so rare in Sri Lanka. Twenty paediatricians (40%) and four histopathologists (26.7%) agreed with this view while five forensic pathologists (71.4%), believed the reason was under-diagnosis. In conclusion, the majority of doctors believe the most likely reason for the rarity of SIDS in Sri Lanka is that babies are kept under close adult supervision, in comparison with developed countries. By contrast, most forensic pathologists are of the opinion that SIDS is under-diagnosed.

Non union of scaphoid fracture in a cricketer – possibility of a stress fracture: a case report

Scaphoid stress fractures are rare and can be a cause of wrist pain in sportspersons. All the cases reported in the literature have been sportspersons. Missing a scaphoid stress fracture could lead to non-union of the scaphoid and early degenerative arthritis of the radio-carpal joint. This can cause chronic wrist pain and can reduce the career span of a sportsperson. We report a case of non union of a scaphoid fracture in a cricketer possibly secondary to a stress fracture.

Relationships between Personality and Organization Switching: Implications for utility estimates

This study examined individuals' tendencies to migrate from one organization to another (i.e., the propensity to switch employers). Previous researchers have suggested that switching organizations throughout the career span may be partially heritable and therefore related to individual differences in personality traits. If personality traits are indeed related to a tendency to turnover from organizations, this suggests that current procedures for calculating utility may be inaccurate. Using a database of 1081 individuals who have been in the workforce for several years, results indicated that personality traits measured by the Occupational Personality Questionnaire (non‐ipsative; OPQn) were modestly related to organization switching (i.e., repeated moves from organization to organization). We found that higher scores on extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness‐related traits were modestly correlated with more frequent organization switching. However, we demonstrate that these modest relationships can produce large inaccuracies in utility estimates.

Writers United?

Writers United? John Auerbach (bio) In America, we tend to think of creative writing as the result of inspiration, genius, or, perhaps, tenacity. We have a hard time thinking of writing as labor and of the people who write as workers. And sometimes it's the writers themselves who have the hardest time thinking that way. After all, we're classy people—even our union isn't a union, it's a "guild." Kind of like the playwrights guild, whose members actually own the copyrights to their work. Only we don't. We traded that for the right to bargain collectively and to form a union. Or, I should say, two unions, West and East, born when the screenwriters out in Hollywood and the TV writers in New York affiliated with each other back in the early 1950s. Over the years, the makeup of the writers guilds changed. The old studio system collapsed. The TV industry went from live to taped and moved from New York to Hollywood. As a result, almost all TV writers ended up in the Writers Guild of America, West, and many screenwriters, who were no longer warehoused on studio lots, could write from their homes, which could be three thousand miles away from Hollywood in New York City. Screenwriters became members of the Writers Guild of America, East. When the two separate yet affiliated writers unions bargained with the film studios and TV networks, the influence of the TV writers was stronger in the West, while the East was more informed by a feature film mindset. This would seem to suggest a complementary approach in which the whole would be stronger than the two halves when facing off against the employer. Wrong. The writers unions negotiate minimums—that is, the minimum amount a writer gets paid for writing, say, a half-hour sitcom or a Hollywood feature. The fact is that almost all film screenwriters get paid over scale. More-in-demand screenwriters get paid much more over the scale than less-in-demand writers. Conversely, almost all TV writers get paid the same minimum initial compensation. More-in-demand TV writers also get paid as producers. A producer, according to the writers guilds, is an employer. What a producer gets paid has nothing to do with the writers unions. [End Page 95] Thus, the lion's share of a TV writer's salary is not covered by guild jurisdiction. Nor does the employer pay pension or health contributions on this salary, and the TV writer does not pay union dues on it. There is another key difference between the collective bargaining demands of screenwriters and TV writers. Screenwriters are paid for the reuse of their feature film scripts on TV or home video with a percentage of the sales generated by the studios. TV writers are paid a flat fee for the reuse of the shows they write based on the minimums they were paid initially. Thus, all that TV writers are interested in as far as their remuneration goes is the minimum. However, raising the minimum barely affects the vast majority of screenwriters. Screenwriters are invested in raising the percentage paid when their feature screenplays are repackaged for TV, cable TV, pay-cable TV, and home video. The problem is that, because TV writers are not paid a percentage, they have no interest in this fight. All this, combined with the fact that the average NFL running back probably has a longer career span than the average professional film or TV writer, and you have a shaky negotiating posture. Every three years, the writers guilds negotiate a Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) with the studios. It's about the size of War and Peace and covers all aspects of employment, from credits to pensions. Leading up to the 2001 MBA negotiations, the writers guilds, led by the West, tried to bluff a tough stance with the studios and networks. The secretary-treasurer of the Writers Guild, West (WGAw) declared to his membership, "Don't buy a new Porsche." "Don't refinance your house." But the studios called the union's bluff, knowing that the union had done nothing to organize its members for a...

Managing safety risk through whole-life competency

The management of risk is an essential element of all engineering projects. Whereas the elements of risk may vary between projects, the need to have regard to other people—that is, the health and safety risk—is always present and an obligation on us all. In order for this risk to be embedded in an engineer's thinking it is essential that the fundamental concepts are introduced within the education base, built upon with experience during the initial development phase and honed throughout the career span. This paper describes how this is happening and adds some suggestions for strengthening its provision.

Electromyographic analysis of the tackle within rugby football

EMG has previously been used to analyse muscle activation during shoulder rehabilitation programmes and during sports related activities There are no reports on the muscle activity around the shoulder during a standard tackle within rugby football, although there is epidemiological evidence stating that the incidence of injuries to the shoulder within professional rugby is between 0.5 and 1.0 per 1000 playing hours with several studies have highlighted the tackle as being the major cause of all injuries within rugby. The purpose of this study was to define the sequence of muscular activity in selected gleno and scapulo humeral muscles during a front on rugby football tackle. It is hoped then that this information can be utilised to develop muscle specific training and rehabilitation protocols, which may, ultimately minimise the incidence of injury, enhance sports-specific performance, and the career span of professional rugby players. Five healthy asymptomatic experienced Rugby Union players were examined. Surface EMG activity was assessed during a modified tackle activity against a tackle dummy. Onset of EMG activity was assessed in Pectorialis Major, Biceps Brachii, Latissimus Dorsi, Serratus Anterior and Infraspinatus relative to time of impact in the tackle. Onset of activity occurred in all muscles prior to impact. One way ANOVA showed significant differences between muscles in activation timing ( p = 0.0001 ), paired t -tests (with Bonferroni corrections) revealed that Serratus Anterior was activated prior to all other muscles tested ( p p > 0.05 ). These findings indicate consistent early activation of Serratus Anterior prior to impact, ahead of other muscles. Previous literature has reported decreased or inconsistent Serratus Anterior recruitment in swimmers with shoulder pathology, further research is required to discover if altered recruitment of Serratus Anterior is also related to shoulder injuries in rugby.

Sir Douglas Sahm and the Garage as Big as Texas

The singular legacy of Doug Sahm and his quintessential Texas garage band, the Sir Douglas Quintet, belies a number of conventional notions about garage rock: that the music necessarily represents a triumph of inspired amateurism over crass commercialism, that its practitioners were musically limited and had a short career span, and that most garage rock sounds very much the same. For Sir Doug, garage music was not a categorical style but an essential spirit, one that he sustained as he traversed a musical landscape as expansive as his native state.

Career development stages of Israeli school counsellors

This study explores stages of professional development among Israeli school counsellors by investigating their attitudes toward evolving professional identity and professional patterns across the career span. We interviewed 15 school counsellors from different age groups, seniority levels, and school types (elementary, middle, high). A consensual qualitative research strategy enabled classification of counsellors’ rich descriptions into various developmental stages. We classified four distinct stages according to counsellors’ perceptions of counselling, professional identity, work patterns, and resources and barriers in their work: exploration, establishment, maintenance, and specialisation. Findings enriched the knowledge of counsellors’ professional development and its application with counsellors in the field. We discuss implications for further research and practical applications, mainly for supervision and career planning.

Developing the Professional Self-Concept: Role Model Construals in Early, Middle, and Late Career Stages

While previous literature tends to focus on role models as significant other people, particularly in one's early life, this study finds that individuals tend to construe their role models as a selection process of attributes from others throughout their career. I discovered that individuals primarily construe their role models along positive/negative, global/specific, close/distant, and hierarchically superior/peer-subordinate dimensions, and that across the career span, the tendency to observe role models did not change. Rather, the emphasis placed on different dimensions of role models changes. Early-stage respondents who are working on creating a viable self-concept were more likely to construe their role models as positive, close, and sources of a range of attributes. Middle- and late-stage respondents were more likely to see their role models as sources of specific, and often negative, attributes. The study suggests that these observed patterns are related to individuals' increasing confidence in their professional self-concept. In early stages, individuals pay attention to role models to create a viable self-concept; in middle stages, they seek to refine their self-concept, and in late stages, they seek to enhance and affirm their self-concept.

Building on abilities.

This article reviews generalizations about effective continuing education that pertain to cognitive aging and memory and to a broader range of influences related to adult learning and development and to the context of professional practice. Features of excellent continuing education include attention to diversity, objectives, motivation, active learning, feedback, and application. The learning abilities and capacities of most professionals are sufficient for them to continue to enhance their proficiencies throughout their careers. Cognitive aging is one influence among various psychological characteristics. Effective continuing professional education should address career span learning and performance, including emphasis on abilities and not just disabilities.

The shape of the literary career: an analysis of publishing trajectories

In this article we present the results of an analysis of the publishing trajectories of the 1048 writers included in three debut cohorts (1940, 1955 and 1970). We define a publishing trajectory as the chronological series of published book-length works with basic bibliographical data for each work. A general comparison of the three cohort populations is presented, and the 1940 and 1955 cohort is compared in terms of gender and different trajectory profiles. We then provide a closer analysis of the 1955 cohort, which investigates the relation between literary success—seen in terms of either a long career span or a prolific career—and, first, publishers’ size and location; second, reception in the New York Times Book Review. In a final section we then outline a typology of author profiles for the 1955 cohort based on the trajectory variables.

Physical Fitness and Cardiac Risk Factors of Professional Firefighters across the Career Span

(2002). Physical Fitness and Cardiac Risk Factors of Professional Firefighters across the Career Span. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport: Vol. 73, No. 3, pp. 363-370.

Promoting Teachers' Moral Reasoning and Collaborative Inquiry Performance: A developmental role-taking and guided inquiry study

A study of experienced teachers is used to illustrate a developmental methodology for promoting technical performance dimensions and moral and conceptual reasoning based on Sprinthall's and Thies-Sprinthall's (1983) principles of new social role-taking and guided inquiry. Called the learning-teaching framework (LTF), the theoretical and applied approach embeds new role-taking, guided inquiry, balance, support and challenge, continuity and instructional coaching in educational programming across the teacher professional development career span. The study was a 7-month quasi-experimental intervention of expert teachers participating in a professional development program to support peer coaching (e.g. a form of collaborative inquiry which prompts teachers to initiate complex new roles as peer coaches in which they plan, demonstrate and practise new models of teaching). The aims of the study were to encourage new social role-taking, support new learning in effective teaching, encourage new complex performances in coaching and support conferences, and promote gains in moral and conceptual reasoning. Significant positive gains in learning, performance and moral judgement reasoning were achieved. The study highlights the benefits of using the LTF as a framework for educational programming and teacher character development programmes that are based on similar theoretical assumptions.

Redefining Professional Career Development in the Twenty-first Century: A Systemic Approach

A critical challenge to improving the quality of teaching and student performance outcomes is to reconsider how educators are initially trained and provided opportunities for professional renewal and retooling throughout their career. Professional development as discussed in this paper is considered across the career span of all educators and as it applies in specific educational organizations, i.e., preK to 12~ grade schools and schools of education. Beginning with a number of critical assumptions about professional development, the authors suggest a framework for viewing professional development that acknowledges the complex, interdependent roles and responsibilities educators assume in the classroom, the institution, and the profession. The goals and specific outcomes are informed by Goodlad's moral dimensions and suggest an alternative approach to professional development that include important considerations for teacher preparation institutions.

Experience, meaning and principal development

Presents an exploratory study of principals’ (n = 104) experience, meaning, and learning and development in the contexts of pre‐service, preparation, and over the career span using qualitative methods of in‐depth interview and narrative analysis. Reports that the nature and quality of experiences in pre‐service influenced interpretations of experiences in preparation and practice and, similarly, the meaning of experiences in practice were influenced by experiences in preparation. Also reveals that striking contrasts emerged in the interpretations of experience by principals who were prepared in traditional and non‐traditional programmes. Concludes that the meaning of building human capacity through involvement, opportunity, participation, and advocacy was particularly consistent across the career span.

The risk of seroconversion in surgeons of the hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency viruses (in a specific surgical population)

The prevalence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag) and antibody to hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was determined in the serum specimens of 288 patients treated surgically in the orthopaedic department of an urban public teaching hospital. The cumulative risk of HBV, HCV and HIV seroconversion for an orthopaedic surgeon during the surgical career span was calculated. We found that 1.4%, 3.1% and 1.7% of patients were seropositive for HBsAg, HCV antibody and HIV antibody, respectively. Seropositivity was neither associated with age nor with trauma, whereas male patients had a greater likelihood of seropositivity. Risk factor assessment did not prove to be discriminating in identifying which patients may pose a potential exposure risk. This study supports the concept of universal infection control precautions for orthopaedic surgeons regardless of the patients' risk factor or serologic status.

In-service Teacher Education in Europe: conditions and themes for development in the 21st century

This article highlights four themes which focus upon the roles of higher education in the development of transitional research into the continuing professional development of teachers. The first theme examines the contexts and conditions for teacher development over a career span. The second theme looks at what research tells us about the variables which affect professional learning and development, and the limitations of current approaches. Theme three is critical of rational research planning models which result in ineffective dissemination and utilisation. It suggests that more attention needs to be paid by researchers to issues of ownership, participation and equity. Theme four proposes that researchers need to revisit their own purposes, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities in order to move closer to those communities whose needs they seek to serve. Finally, the article suggests “sustained flexibility” as a means of establishing and building more effective networks for learning and development